


Under a Madman's Moon

by rabitty



Series: Eyes in the Night [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: 18th Century, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Blood Drinking, Blood and Gore, Dark Fantasy, Dominance, F/F, F/M, Father Figures, Gaslamp Fantasy, Gay relationships come a little later if you can wait out a couple chapters, Half-Siblings, Half-Vampires, M/M, Mother-Son Relationship, Motherhood, Murder, Past Abuse, Past Relationship(s), Submission, Vagina Dentata, Vaginal Sex, Vampires, crazy father
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2007-05-10
Updated: 2007-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-28 18:42:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3865585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rabitty/pseuds/rabitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The past, 1845- Lenore Yender, born Durmond, fled Sotham and the horrors of her husband with her young son Percy and servant Edmund. Where is she to go with no money, no connections and a child dependent on her while the entire continent of Garren erupts into war?<br/>The present, 1859- Percy cannot remember his father, nor the things he did that made his mother pale when he asked about him. What he does remember is the war that raged for most of his childhood, the friends that died and the cities that fell. What is he to do when something greater than war threatens all of Garren? Does he fight for his home, his family, his friends? Or does he follow the man who seems to want to own him, body and soul?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under a Madman's Moon

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even really know where this story is going. I just started writing and got caught up in the world I created :) Translations at beginning and end of the chapter.
> 
> 'Wakare, watashi no saiai. Mama ni shite, furikaeru koto wa arimasen': Farewell, my dearest. Leave and never look back.  
> 'Sayonara, Sobo': Goodbye, Grandmother.

_March 19th 1845, Sotham, Lenland_

The sunset did little to improve the aesthetic appeal of the docks. What would have been lovely oranges and reds and gold of the dying day simply painted the last catch being dumped out onto the planks in gore, the rough faces of sailors and traders warped into ghoulish masks. The nightmare scene was only enhanced by the pervasive stench of rotting fish, foul water and unwashed bodies. 

Lenore held the folded triangle of a handkerchief to her nose with a gloved hand, though it did little to block the smell. She watched quietly from a dark corner, secluded from the surprising amount of evening business, as her servant Edmund spoke with the captain of the _Perfidia_. The rather ugly siren serving as the _Perfidia's_ figurehead glared out over the drunkards and sailors of the dockside to Sotham proper. Years on the open sea had twisted what must have once been a charming smile on the figurehead into a woody snarl. Its sneering face and blank, water rotted eyes unsettled her. She diverted her attention to the dank pubs and brothels pressing up against the lip of the harbor. Whores cackled like crones and their clients grinned like the devil's kin. With little fanfare, the sun finally sank bellow the waves, leaving the sky a velvety purple. The captain seemed to be demanding a higher fare from poor Edmund than she had authorized him to offer by the look of the servant's pinched lips and the captain's smug smile. Lenore nearly stepped out to aid the boy when a strange prickle up her arms made her pause.

A shiver passed up her spine and she had the distinct feeling that she was being watched, even as tucked out of the way as she was. Being as subtle as she could, she looked left and right.

There.

Not ten paces from her stood a tall, dark figure, stock still in the riot of people, gaze fixed on her shadowy hide away. She knew his face well. Dark brows over even darker eyes, pallid Grey Islander skin and a cruel mouth under a sharp nose. Her heart beat in her chest like a frightened rabbit aware of a circling predator. Surely he could not fully see her in the darkness from his position under a blinding naphtha lamp.

Slowly, she pulled back, slipping behind several stacked crates, leaving only a sliver of her face uncovered. She thanked God that she had decided on wearing a deep indigo dress and black hood. They helped camouflage her in the dim light. The man's eyes swept over the dirty mass of people, seeking her, she knew, resting on her hiding spot at the end of each circuit. His movements were more animal than man. He sniffed the air and swung his head low, following his eyes, like some kind of beast on a hunt. Being so close to him again turned her stomach into a cold, hard lump. He must not have stood there for long, seeing as Edmund had yet to return to her from haggling, but by the time he had left to most likely search further up the waterfront, Lenore felt as if she was several decades older than her twenty years.

The moment she was sure he was gone, she darted out from behind the crates over to Edmund. His scowl had only grew worse as she caught the tail end of what the captain was demanding.

"As I said before, _Sir,_ " the captain said, the honorific heavy with sarcasm, "three people at such short notice? That gonna cost ya at least fifty hollin's."

Edmund's nostrils flared with indignation. "And as I have said before, _Sir_ , unless you plan on giving us your own personal cabin as lodgings, as well as serve us our meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner, wearing nothing but Queen Regina's Crown Jewels, _Sir,_  fifty hollings for a one way trip to Coventry is outrageous, if I may say so, _Sir_ ," he said with the same mock politeness.

The captain was just opening his mouth for a rebuttal when Lenore threw herself between them. "I'll give you 150 hollings if we cast off tonight." She felt shaky and damp, fear and anxiety sitting heavy on her shoulders.

The crusty old man before her in his sweat stained shirt and grime caked boots was monetarily struck dumb by her offered amount before giving her a black toothed grin. Frankly, she was surprised he had any teeth. He eyed her up and down, noting the quality of her dress and the heavy pearls wrapped around her throat before giving a little half bow. "Pardon me, yer ladyship, but we're not cleared for to leave 'til morrow at midday. Most of me men are out, uh, relaxing for the evening."

She flinched, imagining all the  _relaxing_ his men were do in the various establishments she had seen growing off the sides of the city like mold.

Setting her shoulders, she looked gave him a sober look. "If we leave within the next hour, I am willing to double my offer Captain," she said, ignoring the squawk of disbelief Edmund gave behind her.  

A calculating light entered the captain's eyes. By the  _Perfidia's_ build as well as its overall condition, it was probably relegated to carrying liquor and  other cheap goods up and down the western coast of Garren. His men would have already unloaded and sold most of what he had brought here from the last port he visited as well as loaded anything he was to bring to Coventry. By accepting her offer, he may lose a few of his men, unable to rouse them all from the taverns and beds of their hired playmates, but he was like to nearly double his earnings. There were always sailors looking for work, anyway.

Although he had already made up his mind to accept, he acted as if he was giving the proposition great consideration, mumbling about lost profits and how sudden it all was, before accepting. "But we be leavin' at half eight o'clock, not seven. Can't be too hasty, yer ladyship,'' he grinned at her. When he made to shake her hand, she waved him away and turned to Edmund, gesturing that he should pay the fare. Edmund looked at her blankly, still shaken by the amount of money being spent on a one way trip, before reaching into his coat pocket and handing the captain three one hundred holling notes. The captain tried not to look as smug as he felt, and failed, tucking the money into a little pouch in his waistband. As they left he gave out a great booming shout, calling out to his men still on deck to go find their colleagues.  Now that their route was secured, Lenore and Edmund needed to collect something very important from the Staggering Dolphin.

Rushing and bumbling past people, Edmund demanded to know what had made Lenore give so much money to that "odious little boil".

"They're here. Sebastian's here, Edmund, I saw him while your were busy with the captain." She huffed, trying not to trip on the billowing skirt of her dress. _Damn the Galles and their fanciful designs!_ She thought, narrowly avoiding falling on her face as her foot tangled in the bunches of material. "They know I'm making a run for it."

Edmund paled. Pushing harder through the crowd, ignoring the insults hurled at them in favor of pulling her along.

By the time they made it to the Staggering Dolphin pub, most of the naphtha lamps had been lit and full night had descended on the port. The streets were much dimmer nearest to the water, very unlike the glaring brightness of the streets at the center of town, and as such, they nearly missed the tavern's sign. The inside was full of people, though not packed like some of the others they had passed on their way. Unlike the other raucous costumers slamming back ale and weak beer, a stately old woman of Suiroese descent sat silent in the back. The others seemed to steer clear of her, perhaps instinctually knowing that she was of a different class than them, perhaps uncomfortable with the strange way her cape bulged out on her right hand side. Lenore rushed to her, having to dodge flailing limbs along the way. The old woman, Yuko Durmond, rose to meet her. Pulling back her cape, she revealed that the shape was a small boy, sleepy and red cheeked. Lenore dropped to her knees and enveloped her son in a warm embrace, all tension easing from her body as his little arms reached up and hooked behind her neck. As she rose back up, rubbing her palms calmingly up and down his back, she caught Lady Durmond's eye.

She could not remember a time when she had not loved her grandmother. After her mother's death, her father's mother had stepped in as a guide and a confidante for a young, sad girl. When her father had arranged her marriage to Sebastian Yender, her grandmother had sided with her to try to call off the union, and was the only one to console her on her wedding day. Lenore did not know what her life would have been like without the force of nature that was Yuko Durmond.

Lady Durmond smiled at her, first gripping Lenore's shoulder with a warm hand then running the fingers of the other through the little boy's hair.

Tears started rolling down the old woman's face even as she smiled." _Wakare, watashi no saiai. Mama ni shite, furikaeru koto wa arimasen._ "

Lenore nodded her head, feeling moisture gather in her eyes as well. The boy nuzzled into the place between her neck and her shoulder with a whimper, reacting to the emotions between the two women.

"It's time to go, we must make it back in time Lady Yender." Edmund whispered into her ear.

She nodded and smiled at Lady Durmond before leaving. " _Sayonara, Sobo-san."_

They would never see each other again.

The way back to the _Perfidia_ seemed a much shorter period of time than their mad dash to the Staggering Dolphin. Although she was still terrified, certain that Sebastian would pop out of an alley and snatch her, she felt light. Every sense was alive with the chase. She felt like she could hear down miles of labyrinthine alleyways  and peer into the deep shadows between the pools of like cast by the lamps. Tramps and vagrants crouched low over the muck and slime covering the cobblestones to huddle for warmth in the growing chill of night.

Her son's heart beat warm and quick as a hummingbird's wing from his place against her breast. Edmund should have been the one to carry him to make better time but she could not bare the thought of being separated even an arm's length from Percy. The boy may have had his father's looks but he had her eyes and a sweet heart. Not yet four, he was the light of her life and the only good to come out of her marriage. Although Sebastian was a monster, he had seemed to care for his young son, yet Lenore could not stomach the thought of leaving him with his father when she was planning her escape. She did not trust him nor his influence.

They slipped and slid around a sharp corner, one of the two small satchels she had packed exploding in a  flurry of fabric and jewelry at the mouth of a crooked street. Beggars instantly swarmed it, snatching up anything they could grab. With a curse Lenore pushed on. She did not want to waste anymore time getting back to the ship with Sebastian out and looking for her.

It had been surprising simple to get out that evening with only Edmund as an escort. Sebastian had been preoccupied with court affairs and a joint proposal with the head of  Osten House. He had hardly paid attention when Lenore's grandmother had come earlier that day to take their son the Royal Menagerie. When Lenore had asked to pay a visit on Lady Eckley he had waved her away and told her to "do whatever it is you  wish just keep quiet for two damned minutes". Thus, she and Edmund had made their way to the docks to secure passage to Coventry, which had taken much longer than she had wished. Few ships were braving the northern waters at that time of year.

Lenore let out a sigh of relief as they made it back to the shipyard. The  _Perfidia_ in all her water logged glory looked on hatefully as they approached.

They were leaving. _They were getting away from Sotham and all its fiends._

Stepping on board the ship, she felt so giddy she started laughing, unable to help the giggles bubbling up out of her chest. The boy made a small sound of displeasure at his sleep being disturbed.

Lenore kissed his head. "Hush, Percy, hush. Everything's alright." She smiled so hard she would not be surprised if her face split as the ship pulled away from Sotham onto the black ocean.

"Lady Yender, your and master Percival's room is-" Edmund began.

"Durmond, Edmund. I refuse to carry that monster's name. And I am no longer a lady, just as you are no longer my servant, my friend. Call me Lenore." She said.

"Right," Edmund said, looking uncomfortable at the prospect of calling his mistress by her first name after years of service. "Well, your room is ready."

Lenore sighed, relaxing as the city lights dwindled and were finally swallowed up by the night. The moon was heavy and full, setting out rays of pure silver onto the deck of the ship and the heaving swells surrounding it. "I'd very much like to stay up here for a while." She said. "Come, stand by me."

Edmund stepped up so they were abreast and looked out upon the open water with her. Never had she ever felt such relief and peace as she did in that moment.

She had won.

 

 *

_April 8th 1845, off the coast from Archand, Wesson_

 *

They were just three days away from Coventry, fabled City in the Fog, after weathering a rather rough journey. The _Perfidia_ had had a hard time of it traveling north during the spring, with harsh, arctic wilds from the north and warm, wet winds from the west clashing against the coast to birth truly spectacular storms. Three times great hurricanes had forced the captain to take the ship into the deep lagoons and marshy wetlands of Alland, risking running aground rather than braving the bloodthirsty waves. The sailors had mumbled somewhat during the first week of the voyage about Lenore, she being a woman onboard a ship. Those mutterings had only grown in their displeasure and suspicion after each successive storm. Lenore was sure the only thing saving her from being tossed overboard was her money and the crew's erroneous belief that she had connections in high places. She had given up her status the second she decided to flee her husband's house.

She gripped onto the side of the boat and looked out over the sea. Wesson was a series of grey lumps on the horizon to her right. To her left, Norland was nothing more than the suggestion of land, a smudge a shade darker than the grey waters the _Perfidia_ navigated. The sea was calmer here but much colder. The farther north they sailed, negotiating frosty channels and narrowly avoiding floating chunks of ice, the more she thought back on how the flowers were getting ready to bloom and trees were bursting in all their emerald glory. It made her miss the warmth of the sun. Northern days were sickly things with pale light that barely passed through the ever present clouds that blotted out the sky.

Percy had not taken to the open sea. Two days out of Sotham, he would no sooner eat than start violently vomiting it back up over the already slimed sides of the ship. His distaste for anything but firm dry land reached such intensity that she and Edmund started to worry for Percy's life before the sea sickness slid back into a mild grumpiness and greenness of the face. Lenore could not say that she blamed him, as she had failed to gain her sea legs even nearly a month into the journey.

Edmund, on the other hand, had flourished. No longer was he the thin, pale boy that had served Lenore in her father's house and her husband's. The sun had turned his skin bronze, the shifting sea had filled out his wiry frame with lean muscle and given him a catlike grace. Lenore was not so appreciative of the last aspect of his transformation. It served to remind her, even if distantly, of her husband's animal like movements which, in turn, made her think of her husband. Each time the _Perfidia_ pulled into harbor to trade her goods, Lenore had refused to set foot on land, paranoid that her  husband had his men out searching all of the Garren continent for his wife and heir. She did not dare imagine what he would do should he find her. So she holed herself up with Percy and Edmund, locked in their cabin, until it was time for the ship to set out once more.

But that was all finally coming to an end. Norland, specifically its capital city Coventry, was one of the few places in Garren that Lord Yender could not sway with his vast connections and intimidating family wealth. Queen Regina of Lenland and King Rodrick of Norland had been notorious rivals and enemies since childhood when King Rodrick married Queen Regina's cousin and rumored lover Lady Georgette Craisley. King Rodrick employed a regular contingent of spies and back alley thugs to ensure that no Queen's men infiltrated the city. Should her husband send anyone to search for her there, he would risk igniting a political catastrophe for his Queen to clean up.

Even she admitted that the reasoning she put into her selection of Coventry as her sanctuary was weak, but it was all she could cling to. Lord Yender had connections to nobility in all nine kingdoms of Garren, save Norland. No ships were sailing further north than Norland for fear of running into Geddling forces, and she would stand out to distinctly in one of the southern nations like Galle or Atleone. Her grandmother's homeland, the Suiro Islands, had cut off trade with the world in an attempt to halt growing threat of plague from the south. The far eastern continent of Castia was out of the question, what with the seven month long yoyage through spring storms and the constant religious wars waged by its dictators and zealots. Norland was her last option and her only hope.

The wind picked up for a moment and lifted her pale hair off her shoulders, misting her face with ocean spray in the process. 

The creak of boards alerted her to movement on her right. She knew it was Edmund without turning. None of the crew came near her, suspicious of her foreign femaleness aboard their vessel, superstitious in their belief that she brought bad luck.

"You shouldn't stay up here for much longer. You're not wearing a cloak and you're not used to the weather this far up the coast" said Edmund.

Taking a deep breath of the briny air, she closed her eyes. "You're worse than mother, Edmund, honestly. It's just a bit brisk." A shiver jittered through her body, ruining her lie. In all honesty, she should go back to their little shared room and check on Percy but with Norland so close now, she was afraid that if she looked away that the illusion would be shattered. She was afraid that this was all a dream and she was still back in Sotham, at the mercy of the monster that was Lord Sebastien Yender.

Edmund gripped her shoulder and turned her until she was looking him in the eye. "It's okay, Lenore. We're almost there" he said.

Lenore felt something inside her chest relax at his gentle reassurance. "I know."

"We're close but it'll still be a few days till we get there. Are you going to stay rooted to this spot until we land in Coventry Harbor?" His tone was teasing and she could see a hint of a smile on his tanned face.

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes and shook her head. She wouldn't...but she wanted to. To ease her worries if nothing else.

"Good." His hands rubbed up and down her arms in an attempt to warm her up. "Then go back to our room. Percy's been asking for you."

Edmund was her only true friend and had been since she was seven and he was bought by her family to serve her but there had always been a distance between them. It was the cold recognition of the difference between their stations in society. This voyage had erased that formality. At first it had been a slow change; he had been uncomfortable addressing her by her first name instead of by her title in the first week or sharing his true thoughts with her. Half way through their journey, however, everything settled into place. Whereas before he went out of his way to avoid physical contact with her, he now initiated it, hugging her to him, placing his hand at the base of her spine and holding her hand. He also played with Percy as if he were his own child or younger brother.

She snatched his hand from where it rested on her elbow to give it a quick squeeze before turning away from Norland and the steely sea.

That night below deck, with Percy curled up beside and Edmund snoring softly below, she felt the waves beat in sync with her heart. In the midnight haze of her dreams it sounded like ' _almost almost almost_ '.

 *

_April 11th, 1845 Coventry, Norland_

 *

They reached their destination during the predawn hours of the morning. The darkness of the fledgling day combined with the thick mists natural to the North blanketed the city in a ghostly veil, pierced only by the icy naphtha glare of the docks and the smaller, warmer light of torches.

Coventry had started as a small fishing village many hundreds of years before, growing in size as its position on a point protected it from the storms of the open sea. Being the wealthiest city in the kingdom, it had been made the capital by King Rodrick's many times great grandfather. As industry spread and began to dominate the entirety of Garren the population grew even greater, as did the wealth of the nobles and merchants. Great ghettos spread out around massive factories pumping their coal smoke into the air through great black chimneys. Parks and gardens were swallowed up by shops and garbage heaps, the river serving as the city's lifeblood was fouled by sewers. The only beautiful things left were the white stoned palace, pale museums in their moth eaten glory, the candied manors of nobles and the sprawling Royal University. Even then, they cowered in the shadows of trestles leading trains up and over the low mountains that boxed the capital up against the ocean.

It looked nothing like Sotham.

Lenore loved it.

By the time the _Perfidia_ had docked, Lenore had their meager belongings packed up and ready to go. She had no idea where they could go for shelter in the city or what they would do from then on, but she was so full of energy she felt fit to burst. Neither Edmund nor Percy shared her enthusiasm, both disgruntled at having to wake up so early in the morning. Huffing and mumbling under his breath about the time, Edmund grabbed their luggage while Percy grunted and reached his hands up until his mother held him.

They departed with little fanfare, the few men Edmund had befriended waving him farewell while giving Lenore a disapproving sneer.

 

 

 

 


End file.
